Tuesday, June 24, 2008

WILL THE BRUINS GET MARIAN HOSSA?

The NHL free agency period begins on July 1st, and you can bet the farm that the Bruins will be calling Marian Hossa's agent, if they haven't already started talking to each other.

The Bruins tried to get Marian Hossa in February, but were unwilling to part with Phil Kessel, which turned out to be a deal breaker for the Penguins. But now Hossa has expressed an interest in testing the lucrative waters of free agency.

The problem is that the Bruins don't have much cap space. Making a competitive offer to Hossa would require creating some, most likely through the dismissal of veteran winger Glen Murray. But even then, the best the Bruins could do would be to match the other offers Hossa receives, and there will be plenty of those.

The Red Wings and Penguins will be in the mix, and they can offer Hossa a better chance to hoist the Stanley Cup. Then again, Hossa would be a secondary star for both teams. If he were to come to Boston, he'd already be on the same level with, if not slightly above Patrice Bergeron.

The offensive flexibility offered by Hossa is mouth watering, especially since the Bruins were 24th in goals scored last season. Hossa would also help out the Bruins' 16th ranked power play.

But I honestly don't see why Hossa would choose Boston. Due to the cap, they can't really outbid other teams for him. They can't offer him a great chance at winning a Cup. About the only thing the B's have in their favor is that Zdeno Chara is friends with Hossa. But God only knows what that means. The two played in Ottawa together, and for the Slovakian national team, so I'm sure they're buddies; but I doubt they call each other every night just to chat, or text each other in between periods.

It would be nice, though, for the Bruins to have a Kevin Garnett moment.